Rota
by Mulderette
Summary: Tag for the season four episode, Singled Out. I just saw this for the first time last night and felt the need to do a little add on story. Tony&Gibbs father/son. Chapter 2 is more focused on Ziva & McGee.
1. Chapter 1

Gibbs sighed as his eyes turned upwards to where he knew his senior field agent was meeting with Jen in her office. He knew why he was there. After his conversation with Jen, when they had been observing Tony and Ziva in Interrogation, he had suspected something was up. Under strict orders not to discuss a word of it with anyone else, Gibbs had instructed McGee to investigate. McGee had performed his usual computer magic and what he had uncovered had surprised both men.

"What do you think he's going to do, boss?" asked Tim, who was also aware that Tony was in with the director.

"What is who going to do about what?" Ziva asked, a look of confusion on her face.

"McGee! What did I tell you?" Gibbs barked.

"To keep it between you and me," Tim replied as Gibbs rolled his eyes.

"What is this big secret?" Ziva asked, clearly perturbed. "Are we not a team? Am I not a member of this team?"

"Tony received a job offer to lead his own team in Rota, Spain," Tim said quickly.

"McGee!"

"Sorry, boss," Tim said with a shrug. "I figured she would have found out anyhow."

"Yeah, because of your big mouth," Gibbs said, shaking his head in annoyance.

"Tony is leaving?" Ziva asked, trying to wrap her head around this new information.

"Looks like it," Tim nodded.

"We don't know that," Gibbs growled, suddenly very sorry that he hadn't just minded his own business.

"We don't?" Tim asked in surprise. "Why wouldn't he accept the position?"

"I..." Gibbs lost his train of thought as he saw his senior field agent walking back down the stairs. All three pairs of eyes tracked Tony as he made his way to his desk.

"You're all still here?" Tony asked. "Is something up? I was about to head on home," he sent a questioning look in Gibbs' direction.

'Nothing's up, Tony," Gibbs replied softly.

"Okaaaay..." Tony looking at the three agents in turn, all of whom were staring at him and making no attempt to hide it. "Uh..did I spill sauce on my tie or something?" he asked, glancing down with a nervous laugh, "because honestly, you're kind of creeping me out right now."

"Your tie is fine, Tony," Ziva stated, still not averting her gaze, "It's a very nice tie, in fact."

"Yeah and its the same one I've been wearing all day. Why are you all staring at me? Probie? Talk."

Tim glanced at Gibbs who just gave a slight shrug. "Okay, fine," Tim said. "We were just wondering what you decided to do about the team leader position in Rota."

"What?" Tony gave McGee a surprised look. "Jenny...the director said she wasn't going to tell anyone about that...how did you find out?"

"Why was it such a big secret, Tony?" Ziva asked. "If you are leaving, do we not have a right to know?"

"Well, yeah, if I was leaving I would have told you, Ziva, but I'm not leaving and frankly, it was my decision and not really anyone's business." By this point, Tony was pretty ticked off. "Now if it is all right with all of you, I'm going to go home." Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed his things and shot an angry glare at the members of his team before storming out of the bullpen.

xxxxx

Tony was stretched out on the couch as he nursed a beer. His shirt was unbuttoned at the top and his suit jacket and tie were draped over the back of the couch. He was starting to calm down now. It had just been a very long last three days. He had to admit that it was a bit difficult having Gibbs back. Not that he minded, he was glad to have him back, but he had gotten used to being the one in charge. He just needed to readjust to being the second in command again. He yawned as he placed his beer on the coffee table and pressed the button on the remote control, mindlessly scanning through the channels. He heard the first knock on the door, but ignored it, hoping whoever it was would just go away.

He heard the knocking again, louder and more persistent this time. "DiNozzo! I know you're in there!"

Damn, it was Gibbs. Tony scrambled off the couch and went to open the front door. "Hey boss, what are you doing here?"

"Thought you were going to leave me out in the hallway all night," Gibbs said as he brushed by Tony and entered his apartment.

"You want a beer?" Tony asked, watching as Gibbs settled himself on the living room couch.

"Sure." Gibbs nodded and Tony went into the kitchen then came back with a beer which he handed to Gibbs.

"Thanks."

Tony stood for a few seconds, feeling awkward, then sat down on the couch, waiting for Gibbs to speak. Finally, after a few really long moments of silence, he did. "So...team leader in Rota...that's a pretty big opportunity Jen offered you..."

Tony nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"Why didn't you mention it to me, DiNozzo?

Tony shrugged as he picked up his beer bottle and started moving it back and forth in his hands.

"Come on. This was a big deal. You must have a reason..."

"Because...I knew you would have pushed me to take the job..."

Gibbs looked at the younger man with a puzzled expression on his face. There was something going on with Tony that he wasn't quite getting. "Well... you don't get offers like that every day, but its not like I would have forced you into it..."

"Wouldn't you have?" Tony met Gibbs' eyes with an almost stricken look then dropped his gaze quickly.

"No. Of course I wouldn't have...why would you even think that?"

"I know I've been annoying you since you've been back, boss. Sometimes I slip and tell the others what to do...I can see its been bugging you," Tony said softly. "I figured maybe you'd like it better if I wasn't around...This would have been an easy way to get rid of me..."

Gibbs gave Tony a shocked look. "Get rid of you? How could you even think that, DiNozzo? I would never try to get rid of you."

"You sure about that, boss?"

"Of course I'm sure. I would never stand in your way of a promotion, but I'm not about to kick my best agent out the door either...And I can understand how you might slip back into your leadership role. That isn't any big deal." Gibbs thought back to his earlier discussion with Jen and what she had been saying to him. She had wanted him to talk to Tony. He knew Tony looked up to him, sometimes more than Gibbs felt comfortable with. He was nobody's role model. However, he really needed to tell him how he felt. "I know you did a great job running the team when I wasn't here," he began. "Jen said you excelled, that you really held the team together. I couldn't be more proud of you, Anthony. I just...I would never want to stand in the way of your career...I would understand if you wanted to accept the position, but I wouldn't be happy to see you go..."

Tony nodded, feeling a little choked up by what Gibbs had just said. "Honestly...I just didn't feel it was the right choice for me right now. I...I'm really happy with the way things are..."

"As long as you're sure..."

"Yeah...I'm very sure, boss." If he hadn't been one hundred percent sure before, he was now. This wasn't just a job. Gibbs and the rest of the team were like family to him. He couldn't imagine leaving them, not at this point in his life.

"Okay then, what do you say we order a pizza?" Gibbs made a motion as if he was going to head slap his agent, but instead playfully ruffled his hair leaving Tony with a surprised but pleased look on his face.

"A pizza sounds great, boss," he said with a grin.


	2. Chapter 2

**This was only meant to be a one-shot, but Meilea2010 and AZGirl suggested I do a bit more and since I'm a little stuck on "Dinner Interrupted" right now, it seemed like a good idea. Here's the second and final part to this. **

**Thanks so much for all the great reviews for part one :)**

**Enjoy.**

xxxxx

Ziva and Tim sat alone in the bullpen. First Tony had stormed off and Gibbs had followed not long after.

"I don't know about you...but, I'm not feeling real good about myself right now," Tim said, finally breaking the long silence.

"Tony should have told us about the job offer...It is not our fault he chose not to share it with us." Ziva stated. She would have acted differently had she known. Inwardly, she too felt badly about how she had been behaving towards Tony. She just wasn't quite ready to admit it out loud yet.

"I pretty much told him he wasn't capable of running his own team..." Tim had felt bad right after he had uttered those words. He had seen the hurt look on Tony's face and had immediately regretted what he had said, but Tony had quickly run off, waving off his attempt to apologize. Now he felt even worse. "I'm surprised he didn't accept the Rota position just to get away from us..."

"I haven't been very nice to him either," Ziva finally admitted. "I kept making snitchy remarks about him wanting to be in charge."

"Bitchy."

"I know, McGee."

"I guess I just really missed Gibbs," Tim said. "I kind of resented Tony being left in charge of us."

"As did I," Ziva sighed.

"Did either of you stop to think how Tony might have felt?" Jenny asked as she walked over to them, having overheard enough. "He didn't ask for Gibbs to leave or to be thrown into the position of team leader. He did an admirable job in spite of some difficult circumstances and didn't complain when it was all taken away just as quickly. I'm very proud of what he accomplished."

"We did make things rather difficult for him," Ziva stated. She had never bothered to think about any of it from Tony's perspective.

"Yeah we did," Tim said, nodding in agreement. "So, what should we do now?"

"I think we ought to go and talk to him," Ziva said.

"An excellent idea, Ziva. I'm sure Tony would appreciate that," Jenny said with a smile. "The two of you have a nice weekend. I'll see you Monday."

xxxxx

"Maybe he's not home," Tim whispered as he and Ziva walked down the hallway towards Tony's apartment. "We should just talk to him on Monday. He'll probably be in a better mood then, anyway."

"His car was parked outside, McGee."

"Well, what if he has company?"

"That would not be such a bad thing," Ziva said as a faint smile touched her lips. "I have been wanting to meet Tony's mystery girlfriend."

Tim shook his head doubtfully. "I don't know, Ziva...I think Tony will be even more pissed off at us if we barge in on him and his girlfriend."

"We are here now, McGee and I for one, am not leaving," Ziva said as she rapped on the door to Tony's apartment.

After only a few seconds, Tony opened the door and gave Ziva and Tim an openly surprised look. "Hey...I didn't expect to see you two."

"If we're interrupting something, we can go," Tim said quickly.

"Well...I do have company..." Tony said hesitantly. "But...you can come in to say hello, if you want to."

"Oh we would love to say hello," Ziva responded quickly, her eyes lighting up.

"Be my guest then," Tony said with a smirk on his face as he gestured for Ziva to enter the apartment ahead of him. "Oh honey! We have company."

Ziva eagerly entered Tony's living room and then her face fell. "Gibbs?" She spun around to look at Tony who was laughing.

"Who were you expecting, Ziva?" he asked.

"I...no one in particular," she said as her cheeks flushed slightly. "I just did not expect to see Gibbs here..."

"Hey, boss," Tim said, now feeling even more uncomfortable.

"Tim, Ziva," Gibbs greeted his two agents. "I guess I should think about getting home." He had a pretty good idea why they were here and didn't want to make the situation more difficult.

"You don't have to go, boss," Tony protested quickly. "Uh...I mean, unless you really want to, of course.

"No, I'm not in any real hurry," Gibbs said as he leaned back against the couch and put his hands behind his head.

"So, what can I do for you?" Tony asked as he reclaimed his seat next to Gibbs and looked up at Ziva and McGee expectantly.

"I...we..." Ziva began, but she was tongue-tied and looked to McGee for help.

"We just wanted to apologize, Tony," McGee helped her out after a few moments of silence.

"Don't apologize, sign of weakness," Tony stated.

"I think its okay this time, DiNozzo," Gibbs said softly.

Tony turned his head towards Gibbs and then back to McGee. "Okay, go ahead, Probie."

"We haven't always shown you the respect you deserved lately, Tony," Tim continued. "I'm really sorry. I think you would be a great team leader."

Tony nodded, sensing the sincerity of the young agent's words. "Thanks, Tim...I appreciate that."

"I, too, am sorry, Tony," Ziva said. "You did a very fine job in Gibbs' absence. I am glad you did not take the position in Rota though, as I would have missed you."

"I would have missed you too," Tim echoed,

"Okay, okay, that's enough,"' Gibbs interrupted with a faint smile on his lips. "I don't want DiNozzo getting a fat head."

"We were just about to order some pizza." Tony gave them a smile that showed all was forgiven. "You guys want to hang out for a while?"

"That sounds good," Ziva said as she sat down on the couch beside Tony.

"I could definitely eat," Tim replied. He walked over to Tony's recliner and plopped himself down on it. "What kind are we getting?"

Gibbs smiled to himself as his three agents began discussing the pros and cons of various pizza toppings. He had a feeling that everything was going to be just fine with his team.


End file.
